The goal of the proposed research program is the development of one or more efficient routes for the synthesis of the anti-cancer antibiotics daunomycin, adriamycin and carminomycin. Efforts will be concentrated on the synthesis of daunomycinone, adriamycinone and carminomycinone, the aglycone portions of the antibiotics. Synthetic schemes based on previous work are outlined. The technology will be applied to the synthesis of new analogs of the aglycones, and these compounds will be converted to glycosides by reaction with daunosamine and other amino sugars. These compounds will be tested for antitumor activity in the Medical School of the University of Michigan. It is hoped that this research will lead to new chemotherapeutic agents superior to adriamycin, daunorubicin and carminomycin in the treatment of cancer. We expect our synthetic route will be sufficiently general and economical to make the compounds available in reasonable quantities. The synthetic schemes should be adaptable also to the synthesis of other anthracycline antibiotics.